Pressure damping mechanism



April 5 1932- H. HoLzwARTH 1,852,164

,. v PRESSURE DAMPING MECHANIS?4 Filed Jan. '28, 1929 2 sheets-sheet 1 x. //////////////////.lf////////////// W/////////////lll///////////////////////////////// l [nz/elder:

- April 5., 1932. H. HoLzwARTH 1,852,154 l PRESSURE DAMPING `MECl-IANISM Filed Jan. 28. 1929 2 sheets-sheet 2 l [n1/'enfer' Patented Apr. s, 1932 UNi'rEDv, STATI-:sl PATENT OFFICE HANs HOLZWARTH, or DUSSELDORF, GERMANY, AssIeNOR To EOLZWARTH GAS TUR- :BINE CO., or sAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, A CORPORATION OEv DELAWARE lPRESSURE DAMrING IIECEANISM Application iled January 28, 1929, Serial No.

ll tures thereof, to a combustion chamber, of

premature ignition or explosion .in such chamber occurring before the inlet valve has completely closed. p

It has already been proposed in connec- V 10 tion with internal combustion piston engines to protect those parts of the gas conduits which are exposed to sudden high pressures because of premature explosion in the engine cylinder or because of failure of the inlet valve to close completely before the' explosion, and are incapable of withstanding such high' pressurestby means of one or `more check-valves located insuch conduits. nThis known measure could be applied to the gas passages of an explosion turbine and particularly to those which conduct charging air or fuel and air mixtures, including coal dust and air mixtures, to the combustion chambers of 'such turbines, but its use is objectionable because of thel fact that csheck-valves possess the disadvantage that they arev comparatively slow acting, and, further, because.

their operation' depends upon the movement of a number of individual parts, suchl valves do not afford complete security. v v

The present invention has for its object t avoid these disadvantages which are particularly undesirable in connection with explosion turbines, and accomplishes the same by the insertion of nozzles in the gas passageway or conduit which nozzles decrease in crosssection in the direction of normal-flow of the gases. These nozzles possess no appreciable resistance to the normal flow of the gases through the conduit to the valve and combustion chamber. When, however, the direction of ilow of the gases is reversed, as occurs for example when the gases are exploded in the combustion chamber while the valve is still open, these nozzles effect so considerable a contraction in the path available for the gas, particularly when such nozzles are formed with sharp edges, that they exert a strong hindering, damping or braking action upon Y l such stream of gas. This damping actionyis waves is completely vdependent upon such' 33.5,695, and in Germany February 10, 1928.

they stronger the greater the velocity of the gas stream rushing into the conduit. My in vention contemplatesI also the production of 'a still greater damping action .by the arrange.

ment of a plurality of such nozzles in series in the directionof noni/nal gas HOW. In such case the spaces enclosed between the nozzles form damping c ambers, as these spaces are' much wider than thel nozzle outlets which bound them. As the pressure energy ofthe gases is converted into velocity or flow energy there occurs in such damping chambers la more or less complete destruction of such energy through whirling, i. e. the energy is rendered ineffective yto exert any considerable pressure in the gas conduit. The nozzles may be made to abut against each other and may be connected at their contiguous walls, in which'case the nozzles lie along the same axis in the direction of gas flow so that the enlarged ends of the nozzlesthemselves form braking or damping chambers. To avoid any material increase in the resistance to the normal flow of gases through the conduits a number of such nozzles maybe arranged alongside of each other,I i. e. in parallel, but the invention is not restricted to such arrangement of a lplurality of nozzles. The nozzles may, for

compact.Y

As indicatedabove7 a number of damping stages or chambers may be formed by arranging a-plurality of nozzles one behind the other miV in the direction of flow. There may be ar- Y ,ranged in addition a check member or valve advantage that the damping of the pressure ..10 charged-through an opening gases, the conduit is so constructed as to op,-`

valve. The portion of the gas conduit lying in advance of the nozzles is located in the turbine housing and is preferably of circular or approximately'circular cross-section so as to '5 be as highly pressure-resistant as possible., Whenever it is inexpedient to construct this portion of the conduit o f circular cross-section, the construction may be suchl that the gas conduitoutside of the turbine housing is 10 composed of a separate wrought iron tube andthe connection between suchftube and the place of use may be composed ofgshort tubular. conduits. This arrangement offers the advantage that the gas conduits 'may be made '15 of such cross-section as to render them highly pressure-proof without lin `any ,way disturbing the details of design which may be more strongly dictated by other considera.

tions.V -v

2o In the accompanying drawings which il lustrate by way of example several embodiments of my inventionl without defining its limits, Fig. 1 is a vertical section through the air valve and the air 'conduit controlled thereby; Fig. 2 is a view similarto Fig. 1 but shows the air conduit replaced by tubes of small di- .ameters; Fig-3 is a view similar to Fig. 2

- but includes 'a check-valve Within the air tube; Fig. 4 is an enlarged view of the nozzles and nozzle chambers; and Fig. 5 is a partial `section through the entire, lant illustratin the general arrangement ofp parts.

In the several figures the letter a designates one of the combustionA chambers of an ex lo- .35 sion turbine to which air is introducedpby' means of a charging valve bwhich may be opera-ted by oil' under pressure in a manner well known in the art. Thevalve is ositioned within a casing f to which air is h h eFcomrnuniclib;l` ino' wit a gas assageway v ig. 1 wit in the housing lap-In the closed position of the valve the space in advance of the same is shut oi from the interior of the combustion chamber a by the engagement ofthe valve head b with its seat c. In the normal operation of the valve the same is completely closed'at or before the beginning of the explosion in'the combustion chamber. For various reasons it may, however, occur thatthe valve head b is not completely seated against its seat b at the beginning of the explosion, so that the gases under ignition or explosion pressure are projected into the space in advance of the valve.

` vSuch escape of gases under explosion pressure into the air passages leading to the air valve may occur, for example, as a result of premature ignition of the charge in the combustion chamber. In order to avoid' or reduce the 00 harmful eiects of the escape of high pressure gas into the conduit leading to the valve, particularly in those portions of the conduit which are not adapted to withstand the p'ressure wave accompanying the escape of such -member composed of a pose a ver high resistance to thepassage of gas theret rough in adirectionf'opposite 1to the normal flow of gases.

' In the preferred form of the invention the l' l valve body b is surrounded by a cage-like members or sleeves all, y2 which. are nested lurality of hollow concentrically one within the other. A plurality of nozzles d1', d2 are provided in the walls of the sleeves, the cross-section of the 'nozzles decreasing in the direction of normal air flow (i. e. toward the valve). Thenozzles' d2 are preferably in' axial alignmentwith the nozzles d1. v. A

Fig. 4 shows the construction of the nozzles on anv enlarged scale. It will be seen from the left half of this ligure that gases flowing through the nozzles in the normal direction'l suffer no serious resistance, ,particularly when the sum of. the minimum cross-sections of the nozzles is made equal to the cross-sec# tion of the conduit e leading to the valve casing f. O n the other hand, as indicated at the right half of Fig. 4,' a surgeJof/'gas .through the open valve b from the combustion cham-- ber into the gas conduit in a direction opposite to the normal gas flow through such conduit encounters a considerable braking o1" damping action. The reason for this action is that the sharp edges d1 of the nozzles d1( produce a sudden and lar e contraction in the -areaof the `path availab e for the escaping explosion gases.A The comparatively small amount lof explosion vgas, which enters the chamber of the nozzle d1 at high velocity '.impinges against' and is reiected from the opposing walls of the sleeve d2, thereby pro# ducing whirling which more or less destroys the velocity energy of the gas which hasl penetratedinto/such chamber. That portion of the velocity energy of the gas in thechambers of nozzles d1 which has not been' destroyed or rendered ineffective is re-converted lnto pressure energy by expanslon 1n suchl nozzle chambers, the pressure energy being again converted into velocity energy upon entry of vthe gases into the nozzle chambers d2. The sharp edges d2 of the nozzles llo'- ca'ted `in the sleeve d2 cause a further contracj tionv in the area of the path of the escaping' 'explosion gases so that the amount'of energy converted into pressure energy remaining in the gases in the chambers d2 is so small that ful effects in the gas conduit.

' If these final ei'ects are still too powerful, because of the employment of very high exi.

it is no longer suii'cient to produce amy harmuis plosion pressures, to be withstood by the s'ec-` tion of the gas'conduit in advance` of the. '12

sleeves al1r d2,fthe same may be weakened by inserting, for example, any known form of check devicesuch asa check-valve yg Fig. 3)

Those portions of the air 'conduit which are llocated in the housing vt'may be constructed vas shown in Fig. 'l ofapproxi'mate? ly circular cross-section sot hat they are made sufficiently pressure-'proof against the high- 1y dampened pressure wave which has passed through the damping device all, d2, 5 dl', d2', d1, and i described above. If

such circular formation should be inexpedi- Y ent in certain situations, or should there be any Obstructions which prevent the use of conduits of this forxn,then the construction shown in Fig. 2 may be employed in which the air conduit is composed of a wrought iron tube z which is connected with the valve casing f by means of the short tubular sections lo v only one of which is' shown in the drawin s. Stuffing boxes Z of any known form may e employed to prevent leakage of gas from the conduits lc. As shown inFigs.- 2 and 3, a casing 'm may be employed to enclose the air conduit i.

Fig. 5 shows a partial view of an explosion turbine plant in which the above described safety devices are incorporated. The ex' plosion gases generatedl in the chamber a pass in the well-known manner through the nozzle valve n and channel o to the nozzle p by which they are directed against the blades g' of the rotor r.

While Ihave described my invention in connection with an air charging valve and with the conduits connected ltherewith for tion chamber and comprising a conduit, and a hollow member positionedin said conduit and provided in its walls with a lurality of nozzles arrangedside by side an decreasing in cross-section in they direction of nor# mal flow of a- -fluid through the conduit, said nozzles beingshrp-edged at their reduced' enlarged inlet ends of the nozzles of 'the adjacent sleeve.

6. A danipening device adapted to be lo- .cated in advance of the inlet of a combustion chamber, and comprising a conduit, and' a`plurality of nozzles arranged in said conduit in the path of a iuid charged thereby,

said nozzles diminishing in cross-section in the direction of normal dow of such fluid and being sharp-edged at their reduced outlet ends.

HANS HOLZWARTH.

conducting air thereto, it will be understood that my inventionis applicable to conduits whlch conduct any operatlng medlum such as air, gas', mixtures of alr vand gas, mix' tures, of air and powdered coal, etc. to a charging valve. Variations may be resorted to within the scope of the appended 'claims4 y without departing vention.

I claim: A 1. A. dampeningdevice adapted to be arrom the spirit of the inranged in advance of the inlet of a combussharpledged at their. reduced outlet ends.A

2'. .A dampeningfdevice adapted to be lol cated in advance of the inletof a combusi tion chamber and comprising a conduit, and a plurality of nozzles disposed side by side A /insaid conduit and other. nozzles disposed side by side andl in series with said first-mentioned nozzles, each nozzle diminishing in cross-section inthe direction of normal iow of a fluid through said conduit and being sharp-edged 'at its reduced outlet end.

3. The combination-set forth in v'claim `2 Gc wherein the reduced outlet ends of one group of nozzles varranged side by side open towards the enlarged inlet'ends'of the other I group of nozzles. v 4. A dampening, device adapted to be lo- 65 cated in advance 'of the inlet of a/combus- 

